The largest distribution network for CSR and sustainability news, data, and content.

Norway, UK, US Pledge $280 Million for New Sustainable Forests Initiative

(3BL Media/Justmeans) â Norway, the UK and the US have together committed $280 million to fund a new BioCarbon Fund initiative to protect forest landscapes. With a contribution of $135 million from Norway, $120 million from the UK, and $25 million from the US, the fund will focus on efforts to slow climate change through support of forest landscapes.

The three nations announced the funding pledge during an event at the UN climate summit in Warsaw, called COP19. BioCarbon Fund, a public-private program within the World Bank, will manage the new initiative. The programâs goal is to mobilize finance for activities that conserve or sequester carbon emissions in forest and agricultural systems.

The new Initiative for Sustainable Forest Landscapes will aim at scaling up land management practices across major landscapes, including sustainable forest management, climate-smart agriculture, and improved livestock management, with a focus on preserving forests and securing and greening supply chains. It will involve a wide range of participants, including the private sector, initially through a portfolio of four to six programs in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

The new investment pledge comes in the wake of a report that revealed that planet earth has lost an area equivalent to the size of Western Europe to deforestation over the last one decade alone. This is a dangerous trend that expedites global warming. The increasing threat of climate change underscores the critical need for more holistic land use programs with an aim to support the environment as well as local communities.

The World Bank says that the fate of climate, forests and agriculture are bound together. If land-use change and agriculture continue to contribute up to one-third of global greenhouse gases, it will mean further disaster and disruption from climate change. This is what makes the new BioCarbon Fund Initiative for Sustainable Forest Landscapes so important. Its objective is to minimize carbon emissions from the land sector through climate-smart agriculture practices and land-use planning.

Vikas is a staff writer for the Sustainable Development news and editorial section on Justmeans. He is an MBA with 20 years of managerial and entrepreneurial experience and global travel. He is the author of "The Power of Money" (Scholars, 2003), a book that presents a revolutionary monetary economic theory on poverty alleviation in the developing world. Vikas is also the official writer for an international social project for developing nations "Decisions for Life" run in collaboration between the ILO, the University of Amsterdam and the Indian Institute of Management.